Any experience with 390s?

[CrazyArsedMonky]

Hello again all o/

I haven't posted for a long time as i have been gaming quite happily for a few years now

I recently made the jump to a 4K monitor and bought this one. The monitor is awesome, so much more 'real estate' than the 1080P i had been using!

I am still using my old rig to great effect; I can run 4 EVE clients at 1920x1080 in each corner perfectly, which was one of my major reasons for switching. However i have had to drop some settings to maintain a decent frame rate on games such as DA Inquisition and even Path of Exile - but only when the effects get uber crazy (POE only). I am a bit old school with my gaming, i still play older games like SCII, DOW2 and CS - all of which run superbly if you are unsure, like i was, if an 'ole 670GTX can power a 4K.

My question to you, the experienced community is thus;

Can i get away with simply swapping the 670GTX out for a beefier GPU - the MSI R9-390 is where i am looking (despite being an NVidea fan boy )

All feedback gratefully received!

 

[Gregster]

The 390 is faster than the 670 and by quite a bit but be aware, it will still struggle with modern games at 4K and decent settings. If Eve is all you will be playing, then yer, you will be fine

 

[CrazyArsedMonky]

Thanks for the reply Gregster!

Hmmmm, that is a shame. I have been reading various users reviews that stated a single 390 was able to handle latest games at decent FRs @4K.

If this is definitely not the case, is there a card out there that is capable? I like to buy once, buy properly - however i am Scottish and as such don't want to spend more than i need to

Also, (shock-horror) i don't overclock so stock performance is what i am looking at

 

[Gregster]

The 980Ti would be a good call but you would still need to lower some settings.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_980_Ti_Gaming/6.html

Have a look there and see what cards can achieve in your price range. Plenty of 4K results to peruse

 

[nashathedog]

I also do not overclock for everyday use and personally do not use 4k via vsr because I have not got enough gpu grunt. You've been given the best option and it certainly is the best at the moment. You also want to be looking at getting the fastest aftermarket model available.

If it costs too much then a 390 would be a good option as long as you are okay with dropping some settings, Any card will need some settings dropped on one game or another at 4k. For starters a lot of people on 4k say you do not need AA. If that's the case then a card like the Ti will run most things fine and even a 390 will do a pretty good job just make sure to get the best clocked model. For a 390 even considering my bad 290x gaming experience with them I'd say you should get the MSI TFV 390 Gaming. That will do fine for 4k with a few tweaks and leaves you with the option of adding a second card later which would give better performance than a 980ti and based on you saying you play mostly older games AMD's slow profile release issue shouldn't be a problem for you.

So too sum it up a 980 ti is the best option but if it is too expensive a 390 is the best choice for not breaking the bank.

 

[CrazyArsedMonky]

Great replies, thank you!

That link was very helpful Gregster, i see that 2x 290s are part of the comparison. I wonder how 2x 390s would slot in, i will look into that.

I hate dropping settings, isn't that why we PC game after all; we want the best? A 390 will definitely 'do' but i want the solution to last me for another few years so i will visit the drawing table once again and see where it leads me.

I suspect, as Nasha suggested, a 390 with another to match it when prices drop will be my solution!

Thanks a lot for your opinions, i don't stay current, just re-visit every few years when the rig isn't performing.

 

[Watlinguk]

Agreed with the 980TI if funds permit!

 

[Gregster]

Great replies, thank you!

That link was very helpful Gregster, i see that 2x 290s are part of the comparison. I wonder how 2x 390s would slot in, i will look into that.

I hate dropping settings, isn't that why we PC game after all; we want the best? A 390 will definitely 'do' but i want the solution to last me for another few years so i will visit the drawing table once again and see where it leads me.

I suspect, as Nasha suggested, a 390 with another to match it when prices drop will be my solution!

Thanks a lot for your opinions, i don't stay current, just re-visit every few years when the rig isn't performing.

Yer, you can see what is what quite easily with those graphs and they cover a good deal of games. Be weary of going Crossfire/SLI, as both can have problems with this and the single card solution is the best option generally.

If you are in no rush, Pascal is rumoured to be released Q1 or early Q2 of 2016. I expect big gains over what we have now. Might be worth holding out if you need something to last a good while.

 

[CrazyArsedMonky]

Hmmm, they would certainly bring NVidea prices down. I just can't justify £600 on a 980TI when everything does run, just frame rates drop on busy scenes.

I haven't owned an AMD product in over 12 years, do people have any problems with them? I know they tend to run hotter (would get an Asus card to help negate this) and require more wall juice to run. Any other pitfalls?

How wary should I be of Xfire? I don't tolerate 'gremlins' !!

Thanks again

 

[mururoa]

Bought a 390X in July, it sounded absolutely attrocious under load wasn't any better than my earlier GTX 970 in games (in fact it did worse in GTA V, Far Cry 4 and Call of Duty titles). Swiftly replaced it with a top of the line 290X Vapor-X, which had bum memory (?) and greeted me with constant black screens and wavy ripples across the screen. Sent it back and bought a GTX 980 Ti, best decision ever and if I was to downgrade, it would be to a GTX 970.

 

[Mtom]

Bought a 390X in July, it sounded absolutely attrocious under load wasn't any better than my earlier GTX 970 in games (in fact it did worse in GTA V, Far Cry 4 and Call of Duty titles). Swiftly replaced it with a top of the line 290X Vapor-X, which had bum memory (?) and greeted me with constant black screens and wavy ripples across the screen. Sent it back and bought a GTX 980 Ti, best decision ever and if I was to downgrade, it would be to a GTX 970.

Well that's where personal experience kicks in. You could have bought a coil whiney 970, change it for a 980Ti G1 with a noisy fan, and you would write the opposite. One of my mates sent back 3 980Ti-s for various reasons.

So getting faulty card from one side or the other don't really counts in my eyes if its about recommending an upgrade.

 

[LtMatt]

Hello again all o/

I haven't posted for a long time as i have been gaming quite happily for a few years now

I recently made the jump to a 4K monitor and bought this one. The monitor is awesome, so much more 'real estate' than the 1080P i had been using!

I am still using my old rig to great effect; I can run 4 EVE clients at 1920x1080 in each corner perfectly, which was one of my major reasons for switching. However i have had to drop some settings to maintain a decent frame rate on games such as DA Inquisition and even Path of Exile - but only when the effects get uber crazy (POE only). I am a bit old school with my gaming, i still play older games like SCII, DOW2 and CS - all of which run superbly if you are unsure, like i was, if an 'ole 670GTX can power a 4K.

My question to you, the experienced community is thus;

Can i get away with simply swapping the 670GTX out for a beefier GPU - the MSI R9-390 is where i am looking (despite being an NVidea fan boy )

All feedback gratefully received!

I would go for 390 CrossFire, because nothing will go near it in terms of the amount of performance it will offer you.

Benchmark review for you - http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/91/amd-radeon-r9-390x-crossfire-4k/index.html

 

[mururoa]

Well that's where personal experience kicks in.

That's why I posted it in a thread with the title "Any experience with 390s".

 

[passey89]

Crossfire will give u more power and performance where profiles work and scaling is good.

You will more then likely need to put 2 d 390's under water though as the heat they will output will be mad.

My 2 x 290x's were good but the single card solutions os still the best.

You can get a new 980 ti for £499.99 now deffo worth it for that price

 

[CrazyArsedMonky]

That's why I posted it in a thread with the title "Any experience with 390s".

LOL!

Seriously though, glad for a little debate. I don't really care about being a fanboy, i used to buy NVidea because in my opinion they couldn't be touched by AMD. I read that AMD are now releasing great cards, I do not believe everything I read however, especially as there is conflicting information out there; hence my request for personal experience.

I had found that review AMDMatt, was very impressive! I do think that Passey makes a very valid point about the cooling however. My case is modern and large for water, but its the added expense and 'faf' factor.

Anyone running XFire 390s who can comment?

 

[Blackjack Davy]

LOL!

Anyone running XFire 390s who can comment?

TonyTurbo has a couple on air they're a tad warm, he was putting them under water. He seems to have disappeared atm but have a look through his post history its in there somewhere.

 

[Meladath]

If you are only playing eve 390 is more than enough for 4K.

My 2 290's smash everything bar witcher 3 max settings at 4K, considering the small price they cost me compared to even a single Fury/Fury X/980Ti, its an amazing setup. They do run pretty warm (Mine max out at 84 top card 80 bottom card) if you overclock them, mine run at 1120/1080 core 1500 mem with +30/+25mv, but at stock you will be fine as long as you use a custom fan profile, mine never go over 80 when they are stock.

 

[farmerboy-86]

Hi I highly recommend the msi r9 390 I have crossfire running custom water cooling mod (gpu only) block there amazing Overclockers best by far

Currently running 1200 core 1700 memory

Idle 26c
max temp while gaming 48c

Maxes anything I through there way

I have 3 24" monitors as I play a lot of race Sims and the performance is unreal

I wouldn't recommend 1 for 4k gaming though although it states it, its not up to the task in some modern games but crossfire them and oh boy game changer I'm still amazed by the performance of these cards given there price

The best part is alphacool have just released full cover blocks for the msi 390 and I have 2 on the way as the ghetto mod doesn't look the best but as stated above it gets the job done

If your after a cheap card with huge overclocking potential then I highly recommend the msi 390 cards and if your budget can afford it get 2 which is only a fraction more than a single 980ti

 

[straxusii]

Single Titan X here, it is only up to the job of powering a 4k monitor because it is gsync, forget it otherwise (if you want to run games like W3/GTA 5 on highish settings).

 

[mnc fear]

I play Eve and my mate plays on a 4k monitor

We both have 390's- it will handle EVE no problem at 4k

You don't need a 980Ti to play Eve at 4k at all

Some of the other game I don't know about but listen to the guys that play them at 4k